


King of Hyperion City

by likeanamerican



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Gen, M/M, Peter is only mentioned, Plotting, hyperion city loves juno steel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 13:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14106822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeanamerican/pseuds/likeanamerican
Summary: "Meeting the lady in question was not as exciting as reading about him. Juno Steel smelled like laser discharge and bad decisions. He looked even worse. An appropriate avatar for the city itself, perhaps. Based on the stories, the way people talked of him, Ramses made him an offer he wouldn’t refuse."





	King of Hyperion City

Ramses O’Flaherty was not a stupid man. He was, however, running for mayor against Pilot and losing. The people of Hyperion were too jaded, too unwilling to accept that he was what he said he was. Better the devil you know is practically this cities motto. Pilot was familiar in his corruption. Ramses was some stranger promising strange things. Northstar Entertainment helped, being part of the system of politicians bought by corporations and being the channel that the locals had grown up on. It wasn’t enough, but no other respectable figure would vouch for him.

He sighed, picked up his coat, and walked home for the night.

Once in his house, he propped the windows of his office open. At night, the simwind was cool and the dust was minimal. There were also a group of girls that walked by every night, gossiping loudly, which kept him better updated on Hyperion than any briefing could.

“… poor man, I think his beau left him.”

“No!”

“Yes! V, you know, the one that said they got a hotel room together? He said that Juno snuck out in the middle of the night, and that the guy left the next morning. Plus! V said he didn’t recognize the guy and no ones seen Juno with anyone non-local.”

“I guess. I was just so happy that he had found someone.”

“Dame’s had a streak of that kinda luck lately- ever since he lost his eye, you know.”

“Did we ever figure out where he was? And anyway, Juno’s turning it around! Someone just wrote on the site about how he saved a lady from an exploding cat, and you know…”

And then they were gone, leaving Ramses with the beginnings of an idea. Juno- Steel presumably. He was a frequent subject of conversation around the city. Often, on the campaign trail, Ramses asks people ‘What is your favorite memory of Hyperion?’, and people have brought him up. Not directly, not always, but frequently enough someone mentions a lady walking them home at night, a jacket on a cold night, or a daring rescue of a loved one.

Ramses grabbed his comms. The girls had mentioned a site of some kind. A quick search brought it up- completely open to anyone in Hyperion, it seemed to be stories, written with varying amounts of clarity, about the adventures of one Juno Steel. It was charming, in its own way. 

Clicking through the stories, Ramses found the most recent, which was what the girls eluded to. An assassination by exploding cat indeed! Farther down the timeline, he found the reports of failed cases, written with worry, one ending with ‘can someone please check on him?’ Interspersed in those were tales of good deeds, the ones he seemed to be known for, more than even the big adventures. Before that, the report of a handsome stranger and before that, well. Nothing about his adventures, but a whole page devoted to ‘Where is Juno Steel?’ It seems that he disappeared for a few weeks, and his fans had looked all around the city for him. Nearly two thousand people had written, confirming that he wasn’t in their neighborhood.

If Ramses couldn’t get anyone reputable to vouch for him, perhaps someone disreputable but adored would suffice. 

Meeting the lady in question was not as exciting as reading about him. Juno Steel smelled like laser discharge and bad decisions. He looked even worse. An appropriate avatar for the city itself, perhaps. Based on the stories, the way people talked of him, Ramses made him an offer he wouldn’t refuse. 

Things proceeded as he expected. Ramses didn’t need Juno Steel for security or smearing his enemies. Ramses needed to be seen with Juno, prove to the people of Hyperion that their hero trusted him. Keeping Juno busy and accomplishing a few goals were just side benefits. And it worked. He won the election.

After that, everything went to shit.

Really, the mayor couldn’t have predicted that Juno would get locked out in the middle of nowhere with a sandstorm coming. He thought that his hired thug and Mx. Pereya would get taken out, Juno would be upset for a little while and everything would be fine. 

Walking into the city, half out of his mind from radiation and sand blasted to hell is not most people’s definition of fine. It certainly wasn’t fine that Juno got his eye taken out and promptly stopped taking the mayor’s calls. It was bordering on unfortunate when Alessandra Strong told her fiancée what had happened in a café, which then spread around the city like wildfire. That was certainly deliberate on her part.

All of the goodwill he had built up during the election was promptly gone. That very evening, half of his staff had quit. A hostess in a half empty restaurant refused to seat him. People that had once smiled at him on the street now ignored him entirely. Mayor O’Flaherty was a pariah in his own city.

**Author's Note:**

> I started this thinking about Hyperion and Juno Steel and how I hoped they loved our lady. Then, I thought about why Ramses would hire Juno and it became this little thing.


End file.
